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‘Essentials’ by Vitality

A Vitality lite service to reward and encourage good lifestyle choices.

Not as comprehensive as full Vitality membership.

Employers just need to offer full PMI to a minimum number of employees.

Not an alternative to full PMI.

25th April 2019

The Product

Vitality Essentials is provided at no additional cost to Vitality’s Business Healthcare clients who cover a percentage of their employees with full PMI.

Through Vitality Essentials, employees have access to various lifestyle health and primary care benefits. Benefits include discounts of 40% on Virgin Active and Nuffield Health gym membership and up to 40% on wearable fitness devices. Additionally, employees have access to virtual GP consultations and the online Vitality Age assessment at no additional charge, and a discount on an annual Vitality Healthcheck.

Members of Vitality Essentials earn Vitality points in the same way as other members, such as by getting active and undertaking biometric health screens. The number of Vitality points they earn will determine their Vitality status: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. Members will get the chance to win tickets to premier sporting events, opportunities that increase based on their Vitality status.

Employers receive enhanced whole-of-workforce reporting on their employee health through the Vitality Age and Vitality Healthchecks, and also benefit from employees not needing to take time off work to visit a GP.

What They Say

Director of sales and distribution Greg Levine said: "We've seen from our own research and experience that the Vitality programme's combination of health assessments, lifestyle partners and incentives and rewards, drives positive outcomes for employees and employers when it comes to health, wellbeing and productivity. However, these benefits can often be limited by a high proportion of employees not having access to health promotion assets - due to not being covered by Vitality's PMI product.
"The new Essentials proposition will allow employers to extend the key benefits of Vitality to a greater number of their employees and, in doing so, it fully supports Vitality's unique shared value approach of delivering products that make people healthier and enhance and protect their lives, in turn benefiting individuals, employers and society."

What We Say

"Evidence from Vitality’s Britain’s Healthiest Workplace (2017) found that employee ill-health had a key impact on business’ productivity, with healthier employees shown to lose significantly less productive time – approximately a 25 day difference - than unhealthy employees.

"Other research supports the view that engaged employees and fitter employees will benefit firms too, so it makes sense for employers to encourage positive lifestyle choices.

"Vitality’s response is to offer a sort of Vitality lite service to employer customers that already provide PMI to some. Minimum criteria must be meet (which seems fair) but it’s hard to argue against a free service such as this.

"Indeed, the hope must be that the consequent savings that could well be generated may encourage employers to go further – whether that is by extending PMI to more employees or by adding other employee benefits."